Alex's Storm Chasing Blog

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Journal:
Today was our last day of the trip. What I learned most from this day is the
fact that driving through Pennsylvania is a lot worse than it sounds. The state
is really really beautiful, but with the winding roads and lower speed limits,
it took forever to actually drive through it all! I was happy that we briefly went through West
Virginia since I am able to check that state off my list of states I have
visited so that was an unexpected surprise. Actually returning to familiar
places again like Eastern PA and NJ (especially Rutgers) was a really good
feeling although a little disorienting after being on the road for 2 weeks and
seeing a new place every day. It really feels good to be home!

z(10:07am
CDT) we enter Joplin, MO to observe the damage that remains from the tornado
that struck there 5;47 pm the tornado
entered the town. Overcast right now.

z(
10:55am CDT) we get some gas and then have lunch at a steak and shake in
Missouri.

z(3:33am
CDT) we see our first glimpse of St. Louis Arc.

Skies still remain
overcast

z(7:20pm
CDT) we enter back into EDT. WHOOOO!!!!

We
have dinner at a Ruby Tuesday’s in Indiana.

12:00
am EST we arrive at our hotel in Ohio for the night.

Journal:

Since
these are the last 2 travel days and we have home to look forward to, I did not
do too much logging. We did do several interesting things today though even if
the weather was nothing more than cloudy for most of the day. We visited Joplin
and saw how wide the massive tornado was that plowed through the city on that
sad day in 2011. Fortunately the city is quickly rebuilding and it looks like
they will recover although I am sure that the storm has left it’s mark on the
people who live there for many decades to come and it will not be forgotten
even when all the trees grow back and buildings are replaced. The drive home
was not as tedious as I had expected it to be. Perhaps this is because I slept
for much of the ride, but it really wasn’t too bad! At this point in the trip,
I am excited to go back home and have some time to myself and to relax although
if I could storm chase every day all summer long, I would in a heartbeat! Also,
today we went to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner, which is a chain I always wanted to
try but have never had the chance to. I’m not sure if every Tuesday’s was as
good as the one we went to, but the food was pretty awesome!

z(1:56pm
CDT) we leave lunch and head to the Storm Prediction Center in Oklahoma given
the fact that there is a very poor chance at seeing severe weather today. (We
head north on 183)

z(2:13pm
CDT) Joe kills a bird.

z(2:14pm
CDT) we enter Oklahoma

z(2:25pm
CDT) we head east on 5

z(2:45pm
CDT) we head north on 36

z(3:05pm
CDT) we take I-44 north

z(3:10pm
CDT) We pass through Lewton, OK.

z(3:54pm
CDT) we run into some very brief drizzle (under 1 minute)

Approx.
z(4:30pm CDT) We reach the National Weather Center at the University of
Oklahoma.

z(6:13pm CDT) we leave the
National Weather Center at the University of Oklahoma in Norman Oklahoma.

z(6:22pm
CDT) we get to Rudy’s BBQ

z(7:43pm
CDT) we leave Rudy’s

z(7:50pm
CDT) we get gas and I see a really nice plant nursery

z(8:05pm
CDT) we leave the closed plant nursery and gas station and coutinue to Tulsa
for the night.

z(8:11pm
CDT) we pass tornado damaged Moore Oklahoma as we head west to the super 8 in
Tulsa, OK

z(9:45pm
CDT) We arrive in Tulsa, OK ending our last chase day!

Journal:

While
today was not much of a “chase” day, it was a really interesting day. I really
enjoyed going to the National Weather Center at the University of Oklahoma. The
building was beautiful, the second you walk in, you feel like you are in a huge
state of the art museum. I was impressed with the lecture room/ storm shelter.
The outlets on the desk were a great idea but what I really liked most was the
fact that the projectors were above the white board. I think allowing a
professor to use both without compromising room for the other allows students
to absorb a lot of different things at once and I thought it was a really nice
feature. I thought all the projects that they were working on there were really
cool too (and I thought it was interesting how their vehicles occasionally got
caught in the storm as we saw with all the hail damage!). One of my favorite
parts of the building was the observation area on the top floor. The elevator
ride up there was really nice since we were able to see the lobby below and
once we got up to the top, the view was really incredible (even on a cloudy day
like today). When I say incredible, that could be a little misleading in that there
wasn’t actually anything too impressive to see at the moment, but I can’t
imagine a better place to watch a nearby storm! We also saw some of the offices
at work. I was a bit surprised that the SPC had so few workers. I expected
there to be a ton of employees working all the time, but only 5 people are in
the room at any given time (but as I expected, there is always someone in the
room!). I thought it was pretty
interesting that the NWS office in Norman was literally down the hallway from
the SPC. I really was very impressed with the NWC and the University of
Oklahoma!

About Me

Hi my name is Alex and I love everything about tropical climates including the weather and the plants. During my free time I'm either making my temperate NYC yard look tropical or watching for the next storm.
I hope you enjoy my blogs!